Brett and I watched the movie “Captain America” last night.  After the young man who eventually becomes Captain American is allowed to join the military, he is injected with a serum that turns him from a 90 pound weakling into a man several inches taller and looking as fit as if he had worked out daily for years.  Not only does he look like a fitness freak he has super human powers allowing him to run faster than a car, leap tall fences, and jump from the top of one moving car to the next.  As the story continues the military eventually makes special armor for him including a shield of the strongest metal on earth and as long as he uses his shield it protects him from everything shot in his direction.

In Ephesians 6:11 Paul tells us to, “Put on the full armor of God.”  When we become infused with Gods truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation our spiritual muscles grow.  Our old attitudes disappear, we now have God’s attitudes, His concerns become ours.  Paul goes on to say in verse 16, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”  The shield offers protection for the whole body.  What is faith? Believing that what God says is true.  Faith is dependence on God, which deletes dependence on self.  “So faith, the faith that fully trusts in God and never doubts, is the best of all defenses. It will quench, stop, put out all the doubts, whisperings and evil suggestions of the wicked.”  (Ephesians 6:16 Peoples New Testament)